Campaigning in Scotland

The next five years will be among the most challenging since the Scottish Parliament was first elected in 1999. The theme of ‘recovery’ – of the NHS, social care, the economy, and communities - will be central to the parliament’s work.

Campaigning to ensure that people living with arthritis are part of that recovery will be at the heart of our work.

Here you will find information for anyone interested in campaigning as well as information for decision makers such as Health Boards, local authorities and Members of the Scottish Parliament to help you help us make change happen for people with arthritis in your communities and across Scotland.

If you want to help bring about the changes that are needed, there are many ways to do this.

• And if you would like to tell us about an issue in your area that you think we should be campaigning on, please email campaignsscotland@versusarthritis.org.
• Join our Campaigns Network to receive regular updates and easy to use ‘actions’ to contact decision-makers about our campaigns.
• Sign our petition to support our ‘Impossible to Ignore’ campaign to bring down orthopaedic waiting times.
• Volunteer to work with our Manifesto Delivery Group: contact a.mcginley@versusarthritis.org.
• Follow our Scotland Versus Arthritis Facebook page and Scotland Versus Arthritis (@ScotVArthritis) Twitter feeds to keep up to date with our campaigns.
• You can read our Scottish Parliament Election Manifesto 2021: Versus Arthritis: Taking on the pain of arthritis manifesto 2021 (PDF, 868 KB).

With 1.5 million people living with arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions in Scotland, we know that many of you will have experience, personally, in your family, among friends and colleagues, of the impact arthritis can have on quality of life. Many of you will be aware of how delays in treatments and life changing surgery during the pandemic have impacted on people with arthritis.

We need your help to make sure the needs of people living with arthritis are heard loud and clear - in the Scottish Parliament, in the re-mobilisation of the NHS and in our communities.

Our Policy and Engagement Team in Scotland is here to provide information and latest research on the key issues facing people with arthritis. Please do not hesitate to contact us at campaignsscotland@versusarthritis.org to discuss policy issues, our campaigns or other matters impacting on people with arthritis in your area. This includes our work on chronic pain through our Pain People Place project, and our partnership work with NHS clinicians to tackle the joint replacement surgery backlog and to support people while they are waiting for surgery. You can also read our Manifesto for the Scottish Parliament: Versus Arthritis: Taking on the pain of arthritis manifesto 2021 (PDF 868 KB).

Our support services - Working Well Service for work-related issues, the Living Well Service for self-management and physical activity support and our Young People and Families Service - are here for your constituents. Please signpost relevant constituents to our helpline - 0800 5200 520. Our helpline team will provide individually tailored information including details of our local services.